How Young People Feel About Going Out, Housing and Mental Health

We spoke to over 2,500 18 to 34-year-olds living in the UK to explore and document what life is like for young people in Britain in 2016. From Blackpool to Belfast, country fairs to council estates, the nation's youth told us exactly how they felt about money, politics, drugs, sex, music, clothes and everything else that matters. This is the VICELAND Census, all this week on VICELAND and VICE.COM.

So far this week we've looked at sex and relationships, crime and drugs, popular culture, politics and discrimination. This final set of results is about going out, housing and your mental health. But before you read about all that, watch the little video above that our friends at VICELAND made, talking to people throughout the UK about partying.

Once upon a time, going out was all about the great British pub. In a different, pill-ier age, the hottest spots were fields in the middle of nowhere. For this generation, turns out the ultimate night out is actually a night in:

Your favourite way to spend a night out was, of course, the humble house party. Clubbing doesn't score that highly, which I suppose is just as well considering we're losing nightclubs – especially in London – at a terrifying rate.

Housing is a contentious issue – most people reading this are probably renting from a horrible landlord or still sleeping in their childhood bedroom – but it's certainly one of the topics that will define our generation.

A large proportion of us believe our living situation has been affected by gentrification (71 percent), and if you're living in a city, it definitely has. We're also aware of how fucked we are: when judging the fairness of the housing system on a scale from 0 (not fair at all) to 10 (completely fair), nearly a third (29 percent) scored 0. Only 5 percent of young people gave a score over 5, meaning that 95 percent of you think the housing system is unfair.

After years of being messed around by estate agents, your nerve has finally been broken. How do you feel about the suited little berks who take a fat cut of your low salary every time you move flat-share? A huge 62 percent of you said you dislike them, with a significant 27 percent of you choosing "strongly dislike". Unfortunately, seeing as we'll be renting forever, it doesn't look like we'll be able to escape them in a hurry.

Worryingly, but unsurprisingly, over half of you (52 percent) said that mental health had stopped you from working, while 42 percent take or have taken prescription drugs for mental health problems. After a big push from the media, the seriousness of the mental health crisis for young people has finally come into focus – which has gone some way to challenge stigma and the lack understanding around mental health issues.

When respondents were asked how much they agreed with the statement "Mental illness is an illness like any other", 50 percent said they agreed fully and only 3 percent of people disagreed to any level.

@hannahrosewens

More on the VICELAND UK Census:

What Young People Fear the Most

Why Young People Are Wrong To Abandon Patriotism

The VICELAND UK Census: How Young People Feel About Britain, Politics and Patriotism

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